My current passion is story-telling, and it would have served me well in a recent experience.

I was hired to head sales and marketing for a UK based Search Marketing firm. I had to lead the staff in the UK as well as build a US operation where none existed.

It seemed clear what needed to be done. Crank up marketing and lead generation. Seed a few accounts to get a user base. But none of that happened. Laptop, phone — and they expected results.

The writing on the wall was clear. Change the path or face failure.

I did it wrong. The right way would be to tell them the story of a company that tried to expand to the US, ran into problems, adapted and succeeded. This was so they could learn what needed to be done on their own. But instead, I simply told them what they needed to do. It was not well received. I was let go.

Learning to tell stories is a powerful approach is business and in life. Check out books by Annette Simmons like The Story Factor and Doug Litman for more.

Jeff Ogden is President of Find New Customers “Lead Generation Made Simple” He’s also the author of two highly acclaimed white papers, How to Find New Customers and Definitive Guide to Making Quota, as well the ebook, Prospect Driven Marketing. Find New Customers helps business develop and implement programs to improve the way they find and acquire new customers using best practices in lead generation.

In addition, Jeff’s hosting a great free webinar on content marketing with Joe Pulizzi (Junta42 and co-author of Get Content, Get Customers on March 11th at noon ET.  Register at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/536492297.